Why European leaders flew to Washington today

How disastrous was the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday? It depends on whom you ask. 

For NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the press conference that followed was alarming enough to cancel their plans and get on a flight to Washington, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting with Trump on Monday. 

For Putin, as former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer argues, the short meeting in Alaska accomplished a great deal. Trump dropped his insistence on a cease-fire as the basis for negotiation between Russia and Ukraine; he did not raise the idea of a trilateral meeting including Zelensky; and he put the onus for further peace talks on the Ukrainian leader. 

No wonder Putin spoke afterward about reaching an “understanding” with Trump—and apparently felt comfortable enough to extend an invitation in English for the U.S. president to meet him next in Moscow.

The task for the Europeans at the White House on Monday is to diplomatically offer suggestions to walk Trump back from a position that Pifer writes is “bad for Ukraine, bad for Europe, and bad for American interests.” One bright spot for Europe is reported U.S. readiness to join in providing a security guarantee for Ukraine. 

In Kyiv and Brussels, answering the question of what that security guarantee looks like is now paramount. For more analysis on this fast-moving story, watch this morning’s FP Live discussion with Cold War historian Sergey Radchenko and former CIA analyst Andrea Kendall-Taylor.—Amelia Lester, deputy editor

On Our Radar

India-Russia ties. Ahead of Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to Russia this week, FP’s Sumit Ganguly argues that Trump’s mercurial policy choices are reinforcing the misgivings of India’s foreign-policy establishment about the unreliability of the United States—and may result in closer ties between New Delhi and Moscow.

Syria at the U.N. Trump’s legacy in Syria may be defined not by sanctions relief or the reestablishment of diplomatic relations—both important and pragmatic steps, Century International fellow Aron Lund argues—but by the chaotic destruction of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). As the United Nations Security Council prepares to discuss a wave of deadly violence in Syria this year, Lund examines the humanitarian impact of USAID cuts there.

Turkish armament. Turkish drone producers now account for 65 percent of sales in the world market, but, as Ryan Gingeras of the Naval Postgraduate School writes, overhyped expectations about the nation’s defense sector obscure that much of its new technology remains in development and is untested.

FP Live

The Case for a Pragmatic America

Aug. 27 | 12 p.m. EDT

For decades, U.S. grand strategy has imagined a world with America at its center—a unipolar power responsible for global order. But the rise of other countries, especially China, poses a serious challenge to this idea. How should U.S. policymakers grapple with our new emerging reality? In her new book, First Among Equals, FP columnist and realist scholar Emma Ashford makes the case for a more pragmatic U.S. foreign policy that’s rooted in realism. Ashford will join FP’s Ravi Agrawal to discuss how Washington needs to think about its role in what she calls a “post-unipolar world.” Register now, and submit your questions ahead of the conversation.

Debriefing the Trump-Putin Summit

On Demand

Did the highly anticipated meeting in Alaska alter the trajectory of Russia’s war in Ukraine? Or was it just pageantry? As the dust settled on the summit, and as European leaders headed to the White House, FP’s Ravi Agrawal chatted with Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former CIA analyst focused on Russia, and Sergey Radchenko, a Cold War historian and the author of To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power. Watch now on demand.

The Future of European Defense

On Demand

European members of NATO agreed to invest 5 percent of their GDP on defense-related spending, spurring questions about how exactly that money should be used. FP’s Ravi Agrawal sat down with Jared Cohen, the president of global affairs at Goldman Sachs, to discuss how Europe can rearm—and the trade-offs that might entail. Watch now on demand. This discussion is part of a series of episodes brought to you by the Goldman Sachs Global Institute.

How to Navigate Trump’s Trade War

On Demand

In August, U.S. President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on India to a total of 50 percent, citing its purchases of Russian oil and military equipment. How will New Delhi manage? More broadly, how will export-driven economies navigate a new era of U.S. protectionism? Harvard University economist Dani Rodrik argues that while Trump’s tariffs amount to economic war, globalization has long been under stress and was no longer a reliable growth model for developing economies. Rodrik joined FP Live to discuss how countries should navigate Trump’s trade policies. Watch now on demand, or access the Insider-only transcript.

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